Chapters (45)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Pulse
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY–ONE
- TWENTY–TWO
- TWENTY–THREE
- TWENTY–FOUR
- TWENTY–FIVE
- TWENTY–SIX
- TWENTY–SEVEN
- TWENTY–EIGHT
- TWENTY–NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY–ONE
- THIRTY–TWO
- THIRTY–THREE
- THIRTY–FOUR
- THIRTY–FIVE
- THIRTY–SIX
- THIRTY–SEVEN
- THIRTY–EIGHT
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- RESOURCES
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
“Maybe. But he’s also Ryan Thompson, and I’m a wannabe. A Comatose wannabe looking to do anything she can to win the incubator.”
“No, Lucy, no. You can’t let Mr. Two Commas—”
“I’m not letting anyone or anything. I dressed up, I went to dinner, I drank champagne with him. I wore crop tops and I danced at the club and I flirted and I used Pulse to make our beta test a success. Even you can see how it looks. What’s true matters far less than what people want to believe.”
If this got out . . . what would her mom say? What would Stanford think?
Fear rippled through her at the thought of losing everything she’d worked so hard for. Because of what? A hand on her leg?
Ryan Thompson made news. Ryan Thompson was news. She wanted her name in a headline—but not like this.
She steeled herself and said, “I want to be known for what I do, not for what someone does to me.”
Despite the concern in Delia’s eyes, she said, “Okay.”
Maddie’s expression shifted from resistance to resignation. “If that’s what you want . . .”
“It is,” Lucy said. “But that’s not all I want. I want us to do what we said we’d do. I want us to win ValleyStart. Not for a job at Pulse, but for us.”
“I’d like that,” Delia said.
Maddie bobbed her head in distracted agreement.
In front of them, the pyrotechnics escalated into the finale. Lucy stepped forward and wrapped her hands around the metal railing, watching each light tear through the sky, burn brightly, and then fizzle out into nothingness, never realizing she could have this much in common with a firework.
What am I even doing here?
TWENTY–THREE
FUZZING • Inserting random data sets to reveal vulnerabilities or bugs in the code
MADDIE ADJUSTED THE SHEET of paper underneath her hand, a trick to minimize the smudging that often comes when shading. Her pencil moved, filling in the wings of the pterodactyl hovering over the outline of Martha’s Vineyard. She hadn’t drawn anything just for fun in a while; her clients and their needs dictated the time that Danny didn’t.
Three days had passed since the ass otherwise known as the Head of House had belittled Lucy, prompting Maddie to take a page out of her brother’s book and google where to buy a cobra in Silicon Valley. The search came up empty, forcing her to remain on the high road she was beginning to think was as much of a crock as Pulse. Instead, she’d overnighted a new pink notebook for Lucy and a set of baby-soft cotton sheets for Delia.